


A Not So Proper Introduction : Part 1

by DjDangerLove



Series: Tarlos March Madness [17]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 08:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30102936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DjDangerLove/pseuds/DjDangerLove
Summary: TK faces another sleepless night after the events of 2x08, but instead of letting him toss and turn Carlos has another idea.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Series: Tarlos March Madness [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2189232
Comments: 48
Kudos: 347





	A Not So Proper Introduction : Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Tarlos March Madness #17 of 31

The small print letters stand stark against the yellowing pages of the paperback Carlos reads by lamp light. With the book’s spine so limber that he’s able to bend the novel completely in half, he takes care to prop it flat against his legs bent at the knee as he leans against the headboard of his bed. 

Beside him, TK shuffles under the covers for the umpteenth time in a matter of minutes causing Carlos to pause his reading with a finger marking his place. “Is the light bothering you? I can read downstairs.” 

His boyfriend rolls over to face him, eyes red-rimmed and framed with dark circles, and bunches the covers against his mouth. “No, it’s okay.”

“Babe,” Carlos says, reaching out and brushing TK’s hair back from his forehead, careful to avoid the row of stitches still there. “You’re exhausted and you keep tossing and turning. I’ll go downstairs for a bit so you can get some sleep, alright?”

Carlos notes the page he’s on and closes the book before moving to get out of bed, but cold fingers curling around his wrist stops him. He notices their tremble and looks back to TK to find tears slipping down onto his pillowcase. 

“Please stay with me,” is the whisper that comes muffled from behind the bedsheets still held against his mouth. “Don’t leave.”

Casting his book aside on the nightstand, Carlos crawls back under the covers and curls around TK, suppressing a flinch when his tear-stained face sticks to his neck. “I’m not going anywhere, baby. You’re alright.”

He barely hears TK’s whispered doubt of, “Am I?” but the words feel stained on his soul like black ink to white paper. He chases the curve of TK’s hip with his hand, but lets his boyfriend’s gaze come to him. “I’m so tired, but I can’t sleep.”

“We could do something exhausting if you’re feeling up to it,” Carlos offers, hand sliding lower down TK’s leg with insinuation. “Or I could do all the work.”

Rejection strikes quick off TK’s tongue sharp enough to sting before Carlos feels TK’s hand reach for his with a gentle squeeze to lessen the blow. “It’s not that I don’t want you, I do. I just don’t want it to mean anything less than my love for you again.”

“What do you mean?”

TK lets go of his hand like maybe even that is too much. It causes Carlos to stiffen around him as he says, “I don’t want to use you again.”

“You didn’t-“

“I did,” TK argues, shifting far enough away to stare at him across the space between their pillows. “At first, you know I did. I was chasing a high anywhere I could get it besides a pill or a drink, and now that I’ve let myself love you…I only want to love you.”

An exasperation coated in fondness dissolves his worry and he curls back around TK, freely kissing him wherever he pleases. “I wouldn’t consider something I’m a willing participant in an act of using me, but if it bothers you we’ll do something else.”

“Like what?” TK asks, because it bothers him enough that he sits up in bed and starts to push back the covers. Carlos watches him a moment, thinks of how exhausted he himself is, but then remembers how he thought he’d never be able to sleep again if he hadn’t found TK a few days ago. 

Carlos sits up so their shoulders brush, hesitating for all of a second before asking, “Do you trust me?”

“More than anyone.”

“Get dressed.”

“It’s almost midnight. Where are we going to go? I don’t do Waffle House. Too many bad memories.”

Carlos rolls his eyes, kisses TK on the cheek and pulls himself out of bed. “Good, because I hate Waffle House. Now, get dressed.”

—————————

Forty-minutes of soft rock playing through the speakers and driving way outside the city limits, Carlos finally turns the Camaro down a dirt road, two wooden posts standing on either side with a steel cattle gate in the middle forcing Carlos to put the car in park. 

“Um, where are we?” TK finally asks as Carlos unbuckles. 

“You’ll see,” comes the cryptic reply around a smile. “Stay here.”

Carlos climbs from the car leaving TK to take stock of their surroundings which is nothing but trees swaying in the night breeze. “Gladly,” he mutters to himself, sinking down in his seat just because the seat warmer feels good, not because he’s worried. He’s not, even as he watches Carlos in the headlights somehow get the gate to spring open and pushes it back out of the path. 

He jogs back to the car, plopping down in his seat with an excited breath and puts the car in drive to start slowly rolling forward. 

“Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?”

“If someone calls the cops, there’s already one here,” Carlos quips and his delight at the lame joke he’s probably told a million times before shouldn’t be as endearing as it is. “But don’t worry, if anything, we’ll get a shotgun pulled on us.”

TK’s head jerks around so fast it pulls at his stitches with a sting. “That’s…not funny.”

Carlos shrugs and reaches for his hand over the console. “You’re right. Sorry.”

TK intertwines their fingers. “You didn’t bring me out here to kill me did you?”

“Way to ruin the surprise,” Carlos murmurs sounding entirely too disappointed. “Now that you know my evil plan, do you want to turn around and go back? I’ll think of another way to catch you off guard.”

“I do want to go home,” TK says, not realizing the implication of the word as he continues, “you were nicer to me there.”

The sound of rocks crunching underneath the tires is incredibly loud in the unforeseen silence that settles around them. TK turns his attention away from the window and the sudden open landscape expanding under the moonlight to find Carlos smiling at him. “What?”

Carlos gives his hand a squeeze and shrugs off the question with, “Nothing,” before pulling off the dirt road into clearing leading up a barn sitting on a hill. “Come on, I want to show you something.” 

TK exits the car as he finally realizes where they are. He waits for Carlos to circle the Camaro and wrap his arm around him, tugging him forward before he asks, “Are we at your family’s ranch right now?”

“What other ranch am I going to break into in the middle of the night , TK?”

“Carlos!” TK whisper yells like the entire Reyes family is going to appear out of thin air and do God knows what to him. He comes to an abrupt halt leaving Carlos to circle back around, the amused expression on his face visible in the dark as he leans forward in a conspiring gesture. “TK,” he whisper yells back and then laughs at full volume causing TK to jump. “Relax, we’re a mile or so from the house and I used back entrance for a reason. Nobody’s gonna know we’re here. I promise.”

Carlos reaches for his hand and tugs him along towards the barn, thumb soothing the skin on the back of TK’s hand as he asks, “You’re okay though, right? Your head isn’t bothering you?”

“The stitches itch, but that’s about it,” TK says, trying to scratch his scalp around the healing wound until they get to the barn door. He stands back as he watches Carlos go about rolling the door back and turning on overhead lighting. The smell gives it away before his boyfriend motions him forward, but he’s still a little mesmerized by the horses standing in their stalls when he walks into the barn.

Carlos stands with his hands behind his back, charmed by the way TK gravitates to the horse closest to the door with soft spoken words of admiration. He trails behind him at a slow pace, watching as TK stops at the end of the stall a respectable distance away so not to startle the horse.

“I’ll stay right here, buddy.” TK murmurs as if talking to a child. “But I would like to be friends if that’s alright with you.”

The love he has for this man pulls against the corners of Carlos’ mouth as he steps around TK to lean against the horse’s stall. The animal comes forward with a nicker, bumping her nose against Carlos’ outstretched hand. 

“This is Winnie,” he says while running a hand down the side of her neck. She tilts her head towards him, nickering again and bumping him on the shoulder with her muzzle. “Winnie, this is TK.”

“Hi, Winnie,” TK greets, stepping forward when Carlos motions him to and follows his lead by holding his hand out for Winnie to inspect before she bumps her muzzle against his palm. He laughs at the feeling, asking her, “Does this mean we’re friends?”

“Winnie likes pretty much everybody except for my dad,” Carlos chuckles, feeling a sense of calm wash over him at how easily TK and Winnie warm up to each other. He’s not even the tiniest bit jealous his own horse seems to have forgotten his presence entirely in favor of inspecting her new friend. He’s far too busy committing to memory the sound of TK’s laugh mixed with the horse’s happy whinnies while she explores TK’s hands, shoulders and belly with her nose. 

TK turns to him, eyes shinning with more than just the overhead light of the barn. “I think she likes me.”

“Can’t say I blame her,” Carlos winks and enjoys the bashful way TK turns back to Winnie. 

“Is she yours?”

“Since I was eight.”

“Wow,” TK says, rubbing at Winnie’s neck a bit more delicately as he realizes her age. “You must miss her.”

Carlos moves closer, gaining Winnie’s attention for a few seconds before she goes back to her new friend. “I do, but she understands. We had many long talks about how I just wasn’t cut out for making my living on the ranch.”

“Well, Winnie,” TK says, an air of humor to his voice as he pets her. “I guess I should thank you for letting him go, huh? But since you seem to have done such a good job at taking care of him all these years, how about I promise to do the same from here on out and make him come visit you more often?”

The nights that Carlos would sit out on the open plain with Winnie and imagine bringing home a boy he loved, introducing him to his family and his beloved horse the way his sister had done countless times with her own boyfriends throughout the years was nothing compared to standing here now with the man he was certain he was going to spend forever with. 

“That last part is just for me, though. Now that we’re friends, I don’t think I can go more than a week without seeing you.”

“A week, huh?” Carlos teases, moving forward to hug TK from behind. “I think we’ve went longer than that before with our schedules not lining up.” 

TK leans against him, but never stops petting Winnie. “She’s cuter than you.”

“Oh, really?” Carlos indulges, nipping playfully at his shoulder.

“Afraid so,” TK says while finally turning his back on Winnie to kiss Carlos properly.

“Where does that leave us?” Carlos grins against his mouth, but another voice entirely answering his question has him turning around so fast he nearly knocks TK to the ground. 

“Breaking and entering would be my guess,” Gabriel says from the doorway, shotgun thankfully pointed towards the ground. 

“Uh…Dad! What…I mean…” Carlos stutters, before he feels TK press up against his back, smiling against his shoulder and burying his laugh there. Carlos huffs and feels the nervousness drain away. “Sorry, Sir. I was just introducing TK to Winnie.”

“At two in the morning?” Gabriel questions, raised eyebrow hidden behind the brim of his cowboy hat. 

“Couldn’t sleep,” Carlos offers with a shrug of his shoulder, intentionally knocking it against TK who sounds like he’s dying while trying to keep from laughing. 

“TK.” Gabriel calls while pinching the bridge of his nose, and if Carlos wasn’t so afraid of how this could end he would’ve enjoyed the comical way TK stepped out from behind him feigning innocence. 

“I don’t suppose you could consider this a proper introduction could you, Sir?” TK asks as he brushes his shoulder against Carlos’. 

“Not a chance,” Gabriel answers with a shake of his, but Carlos can tell he’s more amused than angry despite the put-upon sigh he gives them. “Come along boys.”

“Uh, Sir?” Carlos lets his confusion be known, taking TK’s hand in his and standing his ground because he’s twenty-seven years old and done nothing wrong.

“New security system,” Gabriel says as if that explains it, but laughs at the double blank stares he receives. “Your mother knows you’re here, Carlitos. I was given strict instructions to bring you and Mr. Strand here to the house.”

Gabriel turns from the doorway to head back to his truck with the expectation that they follow. Carlos watches him go, half frozen in fear for what’s to come and half unbelievably happy at the warm hand folding around his. 

“Hey, Carlos?”

“Yeah?”

“The next time I can’t sleep just take me to Waffle House.”

**Author's Note:**

> Do you want Part 2 tomorrow?


End file.
